Improvement in machines for making cigars



'PL PETERS, FHOTO-LITHOGHAPHER, WASHINGTON. D. C,

UNITED STATES PATENT 4 OFFICE.

WM. WIHUSE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHI NES FOR MAKING CIGARS.

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM W. Husn, of Brooklyn, Kings lcounty, and'State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvemcntsinthe Machine for Making Cigars; -and'I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, inwhich- Figure 1 is a plan of the machine with the upper rollers and theframe in which they are mounted turned over, Fig. 2, a front elevation;Fig. 3, a longitudinal vertical section; and Fig. 4, a cross-verticalsection, taken in the plane of the-line fr .r of Fig.' 3.

The same letters indicate .like parts in all the figures.

Attempts have been made, but without success, to form cigars by means offour parallel rollers arranged about a common center to form a cavitybetween them of the size of the cigars to be formed, so that by placingthe tobacco within the said space the turning of the said four rollersshould roll the filling-tobacco into the required shape and afterwardput on the leaf covering. I have discovered, however, that such anarrangement will not anf,

swer the purpose for various reasons. If the required quantity oftobacco to form a cigar be put into the space between the rollers, the

periphery of four rollers will not take sufficienthold of the tobaccofilling to roll it around; and if the quantity of tobacco be in creasedrelatively to the space between the four rollers that the rollers maypress .more strongly against the tobacco, they will simply indent andturn on the tobacco without rolling it, and even if four rollers couldroll and form the cigar, such method wouldbe of no practical utility,for the vwant of suitable means for forming the tip or pointed end. ofthe cigar.`

I have discovered, however, that by Imaking y the rollers of lessdiameter and increasing the number of them to not less than six,theywill take sufficient hold of the tobacco to roll and form it, and'that by the addition of suitable means, such as hereinafter described,to form the tip or pointed end, cigars can be manufactured successfully.

My said invention consists in combining,

with the rollers for forming the body of the cigars, disks with theirfaces curved, so that the space between their faces will be of the formof a section of the pointed and curved head of a cigar, and each turningon'a separate axis at or nearly at right angles with the axes of therollers, so as to make pressure in succession on every part of thecircumference of the tip or head of the cigar by rolling there on andthereby give the required shape.

In the accompanying drawings, a represents a platform or bench, and b bb three poppetheads, in which are mounted four parallel rollers, c ccc',arranged in the segment of a circle. rIhe rollers have journals near oneend only, litted to turn in the poppet b, and the other two poppets areformed with cavities to receive and simply sustain the rollers withoutjournals. The poppet b is placed' at a short distance from the poppetb', which'snstains the ends of the rollers which are Vnot journaled, andit is so placed because one of the said rollers,c',isshorter than theothers, for a pur pose to be presently described. A hollow shaft, d, hasone end mounted in the poppetb outer end is provided with acrank-handle, or other suitable means by which it can be turned. Outsideof the poppet I) it is enlarged in diameter by a sleeve of vulcanized india-rubber, g, firmly attached thereto, to bear against and take hold ofthe cogs on the outer ends of the rollers c c c c', by which they areall rotated in the same direction and with equalvelocity; but, ifdesired, other and equivalent means may be substituted for rotating therollers.

To the inside of the hollow shaft d is fitted a rod, h, which is free toslide therein. One end projects a short distance within the space formedby the rollers, and it is forced with a head,t', of about the diameterof the cigars to be made, and from'the outer face of this head projectlfour` (more or less) sharp-pointed pins. helical spring, j, insidethe hollow shaft, presses against the rod h, and tends to force the headi toward the other end of the rollers. The rod h is provided with ahandle, k, that projects through a slot, Z, in the hollow shaft. Thelength of this slot gages the extent to which the sliding rod can beforced by the and the other end in another poppet, e. The

A greater diameter t0 receive motion.

' brought down into pins forced into the bunch.

spring, and a notch is formed on one side of the slot, into which thehandle k is turned to hold back the rod when desired. Four rollers, m mm m', in all respects like the rollers c c c c', are mounted in likemanner in inverted poppets n a a, which are secured to or make part of aframe, o, connected by `journals with two standards, p p, so that theframe and rollers can be turned up to give free access to the hollowtrough form/ed by the surface of the four rollers c c c c. When the saidframe o is turned down and fastened by a' catch, g, the two series ofrollers are around a common center and at equal distances from suchcenter, forming a hollow space of the required capacity to hold a cigarof the desired size. Another roller, r, is mounted in the poppet b, andopposite the space between the two rollers c and m', which are in front,the space between these two rollers being greater than between theothers. The roller r is considerably shorter than the others, and AIprefer to make it pointed or rounded at the end. The purpose of thisroller is to feed in the leaves of tobacco that constitute the wrappers,and, like the other rollers, it is providedwith cogs, by which it isrotated, and as the axis of this feed-roller is at a greater distancefrom the center of the space in which the cigar is formed than theothers, its cogs must be of of this the surface of the roller willtravel with less velocity than the other rollers, which will give it atendency to hold back the leaf of tobacco and keep itin a state oftension after it is taken hold of by the other rollers.

At the extreme end of the rollers c and m there are two disks, s s, eachconnected by its journal with the frame, so that one can turnindependently of the other. The axes of the two are in the same line andat right angles to the axis of the hollow space or cavity formed by theseries of rollers vc and m. The opposite faces of these two disks are soformed that their centers are nearly in contact7 and from the center tothe periphery so curved that a section through both in the plane o ftheir axes will form a space corresponding with the form of the sectionof the tip or head of the cigar intended to be formed.

To operate with the machine, a bunch of filling-tobacco suitable for acigar is put into the trough-like space formed by the bottom rollers,and the frame with the top rollers m position and fastened by the catch.The head z' is then liberated and by the tension of the spring j forcedagainst the butt-end of the bunch of tobacco, and its- The shaft d isthen rotated, by which motion which gradually roll it to the formrequired By reason l is communicated to all the rollers, and by them,aided by the for the tip, sometimes called the head,77 of a cigar. Afterthe shape has been given to the illing, the leaf wrapper is to be puton, and as the wrappers are cut from opposite sides of the center stemof the leaves of tobacco, and they are wound on from the butt toward thetip or head, the machine must be turned alternately in oppositedirections.

Two wrappers of the usual form are represented in Fig. 5'of theaccompanying drawings, as they are usually cut from the opposite sidesof a leaf. When a right-hand wrapper is to be applied, the machine isturned in the direction of the arrow, (see Fig. 2,) and the end t of theleaf is introduced diagonally on the under surface of the shortfeed-roller r, by which it is introduced to the surface of l thepreviously-formed roll of filling, and by it and the series of rollers cand m wrapped around from the butt toward the head. As

the wrapping approaches the head of the cigar, the'other end of thewrapper is cut to the form shown ate to go properly around the tip orhead. This form may be cut by hand in the usual way before the wrapperis applied; but I prefer to do this byva cutter at the time of wrapping,as this avoids the necessity of always inserting the wrapper at the sameexact inclination. The cutter e of the required form is attached to ablock on the lower end of a rod, w, which slides vertically in abracket, It is held up by the tension of a helical spring, y, and whenthe wrapping approaches the disks's s, the portion required for the headlies on a table, z, in front, and

the attendant forces down the cutter, and then continues the wrappinguntil completed. The frame with the upper rollers m is lifted, and theformed cigar taken out, and the operation repeated. After a given numberof cigars with right-hand wrappers have been made, the shaft d is to beturned in the reversed direction, and the left-hand wrappers are to beintroduced above the feed-roller r.

It has been stated that roller c of the lower set and roller m of theupper set are shorter than the others. The object of this is to relievethe wrapper fromv the strain to which it would otherwise be subjected inbeing wrapped around the head. By making these two rollers shorter, thewrapper is wound around the curved head of the cigar by the rollingcurved faces of the disks s s without straining or friction on thetobacco.

I do not wish to be understood as making claim in this application tothe rolling disks for forming the head of the cigar irrespective of thecombinations described, as the said disks for this purpose are claimedin another application of even date with this.

I claiml. In combination with a series of rotating' rollers arrangedabout a common center, substantially as described, the rotating headwith pins that enter the bunch of tobacco, substantially as described.

2. In combination With a series of rotating rollers arranged about acommon center, substantially as described, the rolling disks turning onaxes at or nearly at right angles with the axes of the rollers,forforming the head of the cigar, substantially as described.

3. In combination with a series of rollers for forming the body of thecigar7 and with the disks for forming the head of the cigar, the cutterfor cutting the end of the Wrapper at the right place for finishing thehead of the cigar, substantially as described.-

WILLIAM XV. HUSE. Witnesses:

WM. vH. BISHOP, ANDREWDELACY.

